Apparently the city of Pittsburgh who claims to be “A Most Livable City” has never heard of traffic calming. If they had, the intersection at 29th and Liberty, where my office, a gym, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre among others, would have received some sort of treatment to help us navigate the highway known as Liberty Ave safely.

Since I have worked here I have witnessed four accidents during work hours and am forced to play chicken with speeding traffic. When I first contacted Pittsburgh’s non-emergency line, 311, about it this is the response I received.

None of the signal warrants are met at this location; therefore a traffic signal cannot be installed. However during evaluation, it was noticed that many of the crashes were at night. Because of this, lighting has been increased at the intersection by replacing a light pole and replacing the light with a higher wattage variety. The stop signs have been replaced to ensure reflectivity. The storage container was on the corner has be relocated to allow better visibility of oncoming traffic from southbound 29th street.

Apparently there are even more accidents happening outside of business hours in addition to the few I have witnessed and documented. Great that they addressed these issues, but none of them address the accidents that happen during the day, nor do they address pedestrian safety issues.

After my coworker was struck this morning I contacted them again and immediately received a response telling me there is nothing they can do and to contact my state representative. The Federal Highway Administration governs the installation of traffic signals and our intersection doesn’t qualify for one.

What about lowering the speed limit? What about a pedestrian signal? Nothing. They don’t care. I am afraid that just like on Braddock Ave outside of Frick Park, that it will take a death to address the issue.

This the city’s idea of traffic calming? It clearly isn’t working.